The EMCON of LHD fleet is initially all OFF, maybe it is just activated easily?
The game mechanics of AAW prosecution sometimes react slow/dull, I do not usually trust this. The fighter force of PLA CSG is enhanced in the former update: besides AAW patrol, a specialized air intercept mission was added for F-35B due to its high-performance AESA, which helped to find the LHD in many demo/test after V1.0 of the scenario. (so I assume player is bond to breakthrough from south).
After all, South China Sea is no way to be a expansive area for advanced sensors, especially in east-west direction.

Also I would suggest to turn of the radars of the LHD group and let AWACS aircraft take care of early warnings. They wouldn't contribute much to detection while they will give away quick identification of vessels. The group is going to automatically turn on its radar anyway when ASMs approach.

I wouldn't personally design patrol areas to be that large since the J-31s are just going to wander around in a large area and the flight groups are going to be very dispersed. I wouldn't worry too much about F-35B detecting the LHD since they have limited fuel capacity. No F-35B can reach to a detection distance after an engagement with J-31s at 550-600nmi range away from the LHA.

I think that the problem with J31s overextending is because of the CMO's AI handling of AAW missions. If you don't give these AAW missions a specific prosecution area, the aircrafts are going to fly anywhere to intercept targets. Since the F-35B's AN/APG-81 and P-8s' search radars only have a range of 200nmi, I would consider creating J-31 patrol areas 300nmi out from the carrier (about radius of the current CAG-CSG-PLA-N mission). Then the prosecution area could be extended for another 100-150nmi out from the patrol areas.

Thank you for accepting my suggestions. The P-8 bug was discovered as a pure accident when I decided to sacrifice some P-8s for a lock on the LHD. Somehow one was not shot down and I later discovered the bug in the editor mode XD.

The preconcerted mission of J31s is to secure the east side of the fleet/intercept F-35B and clark AB's flights, gather CAP flight to the fleet make it hard to attack but easier to be detected.(how to plan the defend force is the most difficult part while making the scenario, maybe you can look forward to the CN ver. or PBEM ver. of the scenario XD)
Never thought P8s could go that way, the no-navigation zone in Vietnam is to astrict player's attack to steer clear of PLA defense or attack ASBM(a key role in game), BUT, fly it to the mainland of China is really really weird(no offensive means).It is my negligence,I'll add later.
Thanks again and I'm working on a new update.

@Arctemis
thx for your AAR, something I would never know by just making scenario myself
start with fire power, the quantity of ammunitions is indeed far more than completing the mission, the initial update was complained to difficult in other player's feedback, so this can be considered as a way to decrease the difficulty--you can carefully calculate your force to sink the LHD, but F2A is also available for current employment. I will cut off the number of tomahawks carried by SSN(maybe half?), thank you for suggestion.
I guess the strike mission bugs are caused by mission doctrine and the AI of CMO, I've tried to fix the problems in auto strike of computer, but they still occurs(like utilizing YJ91 to attack a unit with is radar off).

At this point in time traditional fighter strikes should not be used at all. Especially considering that the US has an abundance in capable stealth fighters and really really capable ship-based air defence systems. Sending J-15s, J-11s, J-16s, and JH-7s would be outright suicide at this point. Their payload would be easily intercepted, and they will follow down into the ocean. Also I think there is a bug in strike mission design where J-11s and JH-7s just flew directly into the lcs without firing its payload and hilariously getting shot down by short range RIM-116 SAMs.

I also consider the J-31s in this scenario to be way over aggressive and spread out for their task. Often, they penetrated deep into my CAP patrols for minor targets such as helicopters only to find themselves stranded and overwhelmed with F35s. This presented a strange situation where even the J31s were fighting on home territory they were overwhelmed in numbers and lacking intel. In addition I believe the overall mission of the PLA is to escort the LHD for future amphibious operations and not launch penetrating anti-air warfare trying to create gaps. I think it would be much more understandable for the J31s to be operating near the carrier and LHD. It would be a nightmare for the US trying to penetrate a 42 airframe strong 5th-generation stealth CAP bubble 700 nmi away.

I do not know if this was intentional or not but two Virginia-class subs each with 52 tomahawks were stationed near the Fiery Cross Reef AB. Using the total of 104 tomahawks I completely overwhelmed the island's defence with no effort and obliterated the J-20 squadron and GJ-11 squadron on it early in game. I wonder if the PLA is going to station their valuable J-20s on that island if this could be done so easily without the enemy needing to penetrate its A2/AD bubble. It would be more understandable for the J20s to be stationed in Woody Island or Hainan Island bases or at least on the Subi Reef base under the protection of A2/AD assets and utilize its long operation range to continuously harass enemy forces.

Also if you don't want to add units on mainland airbases that slow down the scenario, I will suggest adding a No-Navigation Zone for the Americans close to the mainland. I was able to sneak a P-8 up close to mainland above the LHD group which provided constant tracking of the LHD for Tomahawks. Nothing intercepted it and in real life no American non-stealth aircraft can operate that close to the mainland.

Very well made scenario! Took me a while to complete it with acceptable losses.
However I think there are some problems that could be fixed, and overall strategies modified.

The group stations in the LHD Group at least on my side are not aligned with their original position. This could have caused a butterfly effect in the dumb AI where in the end the ships in the group were far off from the LHD. The closest ship was the 055 at 20nmi away, the two 054A frigates were 60nmi away, and the 052D was ridiculously 140nmi away from the LHD. About 60 Tomahawk MMTs from the side wore down the entire defence and in reality, the total salvo of 133 tomahawks I fired should have all been intercepted by the LHD escorts.

The loss of LT 57 is designed as a necessary part of story line, no need to worry about that. (lol

LT 57 "Sierra Madre" is the Kobayashi Maru in this challenging scenario, i find it is better to leave her at her destiny, my olny remark is that ISR Swarm carrier on the north part of the map is too close to the PLA fleet and her ScanEagle drones are shot down the moment they take off, the carrier itself is sunk in the first 30 minutes for the same reason, F35's supported by NCTR E-2D works well, no complains about that

@Crvx
If you indicate that the scenario is to difficult, well, here are some hints:
1. Find those swarm (carriers) and try to use them wisely.
2. Do not merely put your F-35s into AAW fight, they are also eminent platform for ISR due to their high-performance sensor and stealth.
3. Don't forget B-1Bs in Diego Garcia, numerous LRASMs strike will be a deadly threat for PLA fleet.

Kobayashi Maru

鸡煲在这里插个眼

背景全文见游戏内描述。
See the scenario description for full background.

INSPIRED BY:
Popa, Christopher H., et al. Distributed maritime operations and unmanned systems tactical employment. Naval Postgraduate School Monterey United States, 2018.
Harker, Thomas W., M. M. Gilday, and David H. Berger. Department of Navy Unmanned Campaign Framework. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY WASHINGTON DC, 2021.
Corps, U. M., and U. S. Navy. "Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment." Virginia: Department of The Navy, United States of America (2017).

感谢@Cristianwj、@Sanyr1910、@威慑利剑在剧本制作过程中的支持